You'll hardly get to kill the Rulers the first time you encounter them (I couldn't) but if you do enough damage they'll flee to fight you again later - and they won't heal the damage you've caused.
XCom2 opinions
- Thread starter dteowner
- Start date
You'll hardly get to kill the Rulers the first time you encounter them (I couldn't) but if you do enough damage they'll flee to fight you again later - and they won't heal the damage you've caused.
I think they are meant to be hard. It is a matter of learning how to deal with them though.
Which one is it you're finding ridiculous?
Also, note that the whole point is that you will lose some soldiers sometimes. The rulers are what's meant to throw you some curveballs in some missions when things are getting to be easy...
Make sure you use all your tools, especially frost grenades. In most cases you don't need to kill the rulers, just make them escape by reducing their health enough.
It's the modified berserker. Yeah, I get that it's supposed to be hard, but sometimes I wonder if they thoroughly playtested the DLC.
I don't have a problem with it counterattacking every time it's attacked, but also getting to attack even when my soldiers are just repositioning doesn't seem quite right. That equals up to 10 attacks in 1 turn against my 5 man squad. Also, the frost grenade doesn't do much to help since there's only 1 of them and it only last 2 moves. (The effect of the frost grenade against normal enemies is to freeze them for 1 full turn, but it apparently doesn't work the same way against rulers.)
Are Spark units worth putting in the time and resources to upgrade? I only have the one from the Shen's Gift DLC right now, but he seems kind of useless. His accuracy is really low, and he misses more often than not. Also, his additional HP doesn't make up for not being able to use cover. As it is, he only seems useful for drawing some attention away from other squad members.
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Yup, no repositioning
I think that was meant to be.I don't have an XCOM2 playthrough going at the moment, but I think the best tips are:
1. Use weapons that shred first, then those that do most damage.
1b. Alternatively try and use poison/fire first (as the ticks will apply every action) and they also stop some special abilities (like viper bind)
2. Don't focus on anything else, but getting the ruler to escape.
3. You can cheese the rulers with repeater mods.
I found the Sparks to be mostly about flavour. They do get tanky as hell later on with some good heavy weapons, but their lack of some standard stuff make them lacking for me. I think it's mostly personal opinion. I would recommend not taking them on stealth missions though as they can't hide, but maybe worth levelling one up during others to see how you feel.
Zloth
I smell a... wumpus!?
It's hard to keep my play-throughs straight, but I think the Spark has that Overdrive skill, which proved plenty handy. (Double check, though - I checked my screenshots and I only saw it in the Long War 2 run I did.)
Yup, no repositioning
I don't have an XCOM2 playthrough going at the moment, but I think the best tips are:
1. Use weapons that shred first, then those that do most damage.
1b. Alternatively try and use poison/fire first (as the ticks will apply every action) and they also stop some special abilities (like viper bind)
2. Don't focus on anything else, but getting the ruler to escape.
3. You can cheese the rulers with repeater mods.
Part of the problem is that I activated the DLC mission pretty early in this playthrough. I don't have anything that does poison or fire damage, nor do I have any repeater mods. I don't even have all the tier 2 upgrades yet.
Yes, he has the Overdrive skill. It's not really that great though tbh. Well, maybe it is if I had taken the skill that reduces the aim penalty for using it. Instead, I chose the one that added another point of armor and gives full cover to any squadmate that's next to him.
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dteowner
Shoegazer
A few thoughts-
1) the ruler mod I referenced does exactly what you've requested- movement does not proc another ruler turn but most other activities still do. Pladio's advice above is excellent. As was mentioned earlier, the rulers are overpowered but it adds a lethal threat to the mid-game which can get a little repetitive and unchallenging.
2) you should have weapon mods (not upgrades, but mods like scopes) by now. Note that the SPARK's gun can be upgraded with a scope, which will help with their terrible targeting
3) overall I find SPARKs to be fairly pointless. One advantage they do have is that they cannot be mind controlled. In the vanilla game there are only a couple enemy types that do mind control, but if you played WOTC, one of the chosen is a big psionic. It's fairly entertaining to bring a SPARK or two to those battles, let it/them spearhead the charge and watch the enemies waste turns trying to voodoo it/them.
4) I believe vanilla still has the training center room available. That allows you to reset a soldier's promotions if you screw up, as well as allowing you to spend points to "double up" and take extra skills. Not having to choose between field medic and haywire protocol (among hundreds of other options) is one of the biggest benefits there. You could also re-spec your SPARK if you think you've screwed up.
1) the ruler mod I referenced does exactly what you've requested- movement does not proc another ruler turn but most other activities still do. Pladio's advice above is excellent. As was mentioned earlier, the rulers are overpowered but it adds a lethal threat to the mid-game which can get a little repetitive and unchallenging.
2) you should have weapon mods (not upgrades, but mods like scopes) by now. Note that the SPARK's gun can be upgraded with a scope, which will help with their terrible targeting
3) overall I find SPARKs to be fairly pointless. One advantage they do have is that they cannot be mind controlled. In the vanilla game there are only a couple enemy types that do mind control, but if you played WOTC, one of the chosen is a big psionic. It's fairly entertaining to bring a SPARK or two to those battles, let it/them spearhead the charge and watch the enemies waste turns trying to voodoo it/them.
4) I believe vanilla still has the training center room available. That allows you to reset a soldier's promotions if you screw up, as well as allowing you to spend points to "double up" and take extra skills. Not having to choose between field medic and haywire protocol (among hundreds of other options) is one of the biggest benefits there. You could also re-spec your SPARK if you think you've screwed up.
Well, then my guess was incorrect. I thought you were talking about the third Ruler, the one I think you didn't talk about here yet
As for hints, I second Pladio here. If you're facing an improved Berserker, then use heavy-hitters against it as well. For Grenadiers, I always get Shredder, Heavy Ordnance and Salvo skills, although you'll get this last one only when you reach "Major" rank (which I suppose your Grenadiers still aren't).
Unfortunately, the base game doesn't allow you to use mods with the Spark's weapons. They changed that with WotC.
You must be talking about the Advanced Warfare Center. I don't have that yet, but it's good to know I'll be able to do those things.
I'm starting to worry that I might have borked this playthrough.
I should have read more about the strategic side of the game before starting it, but I was trying to avoid spoilers. I underestimated the importance of gaining contacts and expanding my available regions. As a result, I spent way too much time just doing missions in North America. Now the Avatar countdown is only 2 squares away from being complete, and I've only just expanded to Mexico and Brazil.
On the tactical side, one thing I'm starting find really annoying is how my squad's wound levels and recovery times are random. I feel like there should be some consistency there with the wound corresponding to how much damage they took.
I should have read more about the strategic side of the game before starting it, but I was trying to avoid spoilers. I underestimated the importance of gaining contacts and expanding my available regions. As a result, I spent way too much time just doing missions in North America. Now the Avatar countdown is only 2 squares away from being complete, and I've only just expanded to Mexico and Brazil.
On the tactical side, one thing I'm starting find really annoying is how my squad's wound levels and recovery times are random. I feel like there should be some consistency there with the wound corresponding to how much damage they took.
dteowner
Shoegazer
Restart-itis, here you come.
Had to look it up since your response on the training center name seemed odd. Turns out you don't have quite as many options as I thought. The "Training Center" is WOTC. The "Advanced Warfare Center" is vanilla. There's overlap but they're not quite the same. You can re-spec, but you won't be able to "shop" for extra skills.
https://xcom.fandom.com/wiki/Avenger_(XCOM_2)#Facilities
Sorry, that was bad advice.
Having the Avatar counter get within a couple ticks of insta-loss is fairly typical. When you finally notice that it's becoming a problem, it's generally about time to pivot toward "expansion" anyway. You might be behind the 8-ball for now, but probably not totally screwed.
Probably a good thing I finished my 9th win last week. All this talk is giving me the itch, particularly since I haven't tried Chimera yet.
Had to look it up since your response on the training center name seemed odd. Turns out you don't have quite as many options as I thought. The "Training Center" is WOTC. The "Advanced Warfare Center" is vanilla. There's overlap but they're not quite the same. You can re-spec, but you won't be able to "shop" for extra skills.
https://xcom.fandom.com/wiki/Avenger_(XCOM_2)#Facilities
Sorry, that was bad advice.
Having the Avatar counter get within a couple ticks of insta-loss is fairly typical. When you finally notice that it's becoming a problem, it's generally about time to pivot toward "expansion" anyway. You might be behind the 8-ball for now, but probably not totally screwed.
Probably a good thing I finished my 9th win last week. All this talk is giving me the itch, particularly since I haven't tried Chimera yet.
Regarding the Avatar Project, I don't know if I'm "authorized" to say you this since it's a spoiler:
When/if all 12 blocks are completed, the Avatar Project enters its final stage, during which a countdown of fixed duration in days (which will depend on the difficulty level) will begin. Meaning, not everything is lost yet - you can still reduce the Avatar Project bar during this time but if you fail to do so, then the game is over.
Yes, I took some time to accept the fact that even wounded soldiers fully healed by Medikits while in the battlefield still ended the mission with the "wounded" status. I can only advise you to allocate a Engineer ASAP to your Advanced Warfare Center in order to speed up your wounded soldiers' healing rate. That, or maybe use mods that somehow recalibrate the time needed for the soldiers to recover from wounds.
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Wowza...how many total hours do you have?
I'll be curious to hear what you think about it. I have it in my Steam library, but I've never played it. What I've read about it sounded pretty awful tbh.
Yeah, I don't have a problem with that. It's the randomness of the recovery time that I have an issue with. For example, let's say a soldier took 4 units worth of damage during a battle. They might just be "wounded" and need 10 days to recover, or they could be "gravely wounded" and need 20 days to recover. I've seen that wide of a difference on reloads.
The range should be much smaller and more attached to how much damage they took. Also, it should be determined the moment they get injured not at the mission ending screen.
Ah there's a mod for that. I forgot the name but it must be called wound something.
Let me know if you can't find it.
It's an xcom 2 lite. I had a lot of fun with it, but it's not in the same league as XCOM2 with mods.
dteowner
Shoegazer
462.7 hours according to Steam.
I expect that ridiculous total is only exceeded by my marriage to Wiz8 back in the day, and 15+ years of DDO with the RPGWatch crew.I fired up Chimera for an hour or two last night. I blame you, mister… Not really a fan of the cartoonish style so far. Probably going to try to set it aside for a while since my last run might have filled my need for TBS for a little while. Probably back to DDO for a little while to cleanse the palette.
It's much lighter in mood. I think that's the point.462.7 hours according to Steam.
I fired up Chimera for an hour or two last night. I blame you, mister… Not really a fan of the cartoonish style so far. Probably going to try to set it aside for a while since my last run might have filled my need for TBS for a little while. Probably back to DDO for a little while to cleanse the palette.
I liked the breach mechanism though and found the missions quite enjoyable.
It's a very short game though in comparison to XCOM2.
I have a hard time accepting a Viper and a Sectoid being part of an XCOM squad. It all just seems kind of silly. I hope it won't be considered canon at least.